We all remember those “fights” or arguments that we will never forget. We remember the words that were tossed around, the anger from the other person, and the way we felt after. Here, two writers share their own stories.
Walking Away
I can remember it very clearly, I was so eager to go to the movies with my boyfriend of eight months at the time. We were planning to go to Riverpark to go see a movie then go out to eat after that. I was just so happy because I hadn’t spent time with him in so long since we were never alone when we were at school and were always surrounded by my friends or his friends.
After watching the movie, we began to walk to Target, which is next to the theater. I noticed that something was up with my boyfriend because he wasn’t the usual cheery boy that I fell for. He seemed to have a dark side to him. After exiting Target, we began to walk. I had no idea where but I followed without question. After a while, he began to argue with me for a reason that was strange to me.
He began to yell at the top of his lungs and I had no idea why. All I can remember doing was yelling back furiously. He couldn’t stand it anymore, I’m guessing, and stormed out of the parking lot leaving me all alone. All I can remember seeing was his back walking off as fast as he could. I chased after him and tried to figure out what was wrong, but he told me nothing and just pushed me aside. He told me to leave him alone and I did. I called my parents to pick me up and left home as soon as possible.
–“Violet,” 17
How Could She?
The worse argument I have ever had was with my mother. We were in the house and my grandpa had just passed away and we just came from his funeral. We were all upset about him passing away and all sad. I was on the phone and my sister was going to give me my brother and I told her no because he doesn’t like me.
My mom then comes into the room cursing and yanked me by my hair. She started yelling at me about how I need to be more responsible, but then she started saying how she hates looking at me, she hates when I talk and she hates when she has to talk to me. She started hitting me and pulling my hair.
When the argument was over, my sister left to her boyfriend’s house, and I was going to stay home, but then my mom told me, “Oh you can go honey, and here’s some money in case you get thirsty.” While I was walking, I thought about how my mom could do and say all of that to me and then act like none of it even happened. I just had that in my head the whole time. How could she just say and do that to her daughter? It hurt me bad.
–MM, 16
In 2006, over 25 youth began participating in weekly after-school writing workshops where they congregated in the hallway of a two-story building in West Fresno and learned the essentials of creating media and telling their stories. The group evolved over the next five years and is now proudly recognized as The kNOw Youth Media.
Through our program, we create opportunities for our youth participants, who in turn create long-term positive change in their communities. Our approach weaves youth development and youth media innovation to produce our biannual youth publication, multimedia projects, and community forums.
The kNOw began as a project of New America Media, which was the country’s first and largest national collaboration and advocate of 2000 ethnic news organizations. In 2018 The kNOw became a project of Youth Leadership Institute.
